Strike by '108' Ambulance Staff Today

Over 3,000 employees of the ‘108’ ambulance service will go on a 24-hour strike starting Wednesday night throwing emergency management out of gear.

The employees have put forth a charter of 33 demands including wage hike and reduction of working hours. Over 600 ambulances are functioning in the State and the 3,000 employees would include drivers, paramedics and call centre employees.

“Fifteen days ago, we announced that we will go on strike on January 8 to January 9, 8 pm,” said Marisamy, State president, ‘108’ Ambulance Workers Union.

He added that as on Tuesday night, talks with the officials of the State government and GVK EMRI failed and a second round of talks would begin on Wednesday morning. “If they accept our demands, we will withdraw or else we may even go on an indefinite strike,” he said.

However, GVK EMRI officials said they had arranged an alternative to prevent the disruption of the ambulance services. They claimed that certain former employees who were terminated due to various reasons were forcing their present workers to go on strike. “We have advised our workers to refrain from strike. Besides, it is against the rules to go on strike when the talks are on.

However, we along with the health department have made alternate arrangements to continue the ambulance service without disruption,” said B Prabhudoss, Regional Manager, GVK EMRI.

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